Lives and attitudes were changed by lockdowns. I will be writing some blogs Ā over the next few weeks exploring some of the changes .They will cover
1. Attitudes to working from home versus going to an office or other premise to work
2. Attitudes to the working week, work/ life balance , and productivity
3. The approach to deficit financing and monetary management
4. The mismanagement of the NHS and the wider public sector
5. The role of scientists and experts in policy formation and government presentation
6.The role of international bodies and Treaties in the response to the pandemic.
7. The spin and media control stifling different views or approaches, reinforced by most political parties taking the official line.
Your thoughts and interests in this could Ā be useful.
The pandemic seemed to accelerate home working, hit productivity and public sector disciplines badly, gave more power to certain scientists and officials, relied on the WHO to a considerable extent, and was financed through irresponsible Central Bank policies. There was an agreed view with regulation and effective censorship or criticism of anyone who proposed differen5 approaches.
August 27, 2024
It has certainly left us with a (Left Wing) Whitehall Civil Service that thinks it can call the shots. Refused largely to cooperate with the last Government and it decides when it will come into the office to work now.
Tail wagging the dog.
August 27, 2024
Please transfer my comment minus the stray g from Outlook.
August 27, 2024
The refusal of the Establishment to accept the EU referendum result led to a feeling of betrayal. This was compounded by the censorship and strict enforcement of government edicts during the so called pandemic. It is now obvious to many people that the established political parties cannot be trusted.
August 27, 2024
Johnson appeared at first not to go along with a lock down, he advocated similar to Sweden he then changed, why?
Govt. Locked us down but in stark contrast allowed people from EU and China covid hotspots to travel here and enter without testing! Why? Why have the govt not weaned off China products when it became known during covid UK becoming too reliant on China for goods?
Many thought the Barrington declaration was the way forward. Tory govt. smeared experts who advocated this, censored them and wrongly classed it as misinformation!! Whitty, Valance and Van Tam need to be investigated not given titles and more govt jobs!! The sham of the covid inquiry ought to be closed down as a waste of public money ie our taxes!!
Why did Tory Govt. Set up nudge, military intelligence and civil staff, unit to spy and attack its own citizens? Why did govt. give WHO extra Ā£400 million of our taxes?
Why did,Govt. Not use existing drugs like hydroxychoriquin, ivermectin? Again, was this big pharma and govt medical advisers links to big pharma, including shares in companies? Trump advocated he used the drugs when he caught it and was fine, he was ridiculed but turned out to be right.
It was known the elderly and comorbidity were the only ones at risk.
Sweden, Florida, South Dakota etc never locked down. Princess Diamond was a living example that could have been used as a guide to who was likely to be effected the worse.
NHS did not follow its own pandemic plan, why?
The Covid jabs are a massive scandal. Tory Govt. Knew what they were advocating to be completely untrue. It did not stop transmission or death. They went along with big pharma to give everyone the jab irrespective whether it worked, caused injury or death which is exactly opposite what any medical practioner should allow. Big pharma pays for the their own regulatory body! Why?
Scandals from All MPs show no one believed what govt was advocating, and deliberately scaring nation about.
August 27, 2024
Facebook chief, Zack eager, admits today it did censorship because of pressure from Bidenās administration! Well, no surprise there. Will covid inquiry make our former govt come clean? Why was it necessary not to be truthful?
August 27, 2024
They should all be jailed for misinformation. Is that not their own policy?
August 27, 2024
I look forward to reading your thoughts on the Covid era and its impact Sir John.
Can I suggest you secure your banking rights and freedoms before you push too deeply into the background of the so called ‘pandemic’. Others who have endeavoured to reveal what is behind the unified/collective position of the West have all suffered in different ways from their questioning and revelations about Covid either posted on line, or as Andrew Bridgen tried to do, just talk about it in Parliament.
August 27, 2024
Businesses were so happy that their staff continued to work at home when lockdowns were imposed that their first thought was to make it happen not to make it happen productively. Certain types of work are well suited to working rom home but these do not make up the entirety of most workers’ roles.
The mantra “I am so much more productive at home” became embedded and anyone querying its accuracy was vilified and accused of being in thrall to property barons.
Hybrid working of three days in and two days out probably is the most efficient way to ensure workers have time to concentrate but also time to collaborate and build teams. It also provides the work/life balance mecca. The three days shouldn’t be fixed either, workers need to be adaptable and attend when needed not when convenient.
August 27, 2024
The NHS needs to move to a funding model where it gets paid for doing rather than being.
At present grants are given to each trust. This should move to payment by procedure. If hospitals are empty they should not get money. If hospitals are full 7 days per week seeing patients they should be paid for all that they produce.
This is not a lockdown problem it is doctrinal.
August 27, 2024
+1
August 28, 2024
This already happens in general practice.
August 27, 2024
When you have evolved and deduced better solutions to all the problem areas you see, rather than just identifying them, please offer better ways forward. The time for nudge nudge has passed, we do, so g need a Plan A. By its very nature Reform is the place to sow seed, so get into conversation with them and even better get a one hour slot on GBNews. Having lost Liam Halligan they need you.
August 27, 2024
I think this might come under a combination of items 6 and 7 but I was concerned about the amount of ‘group think’ there was amongst Western governments during the pandemic.
Initially they all underestimated the contagion of covid 19; then they all changed their mind about it; then they all had the same solution – national lockdowns.
I actually agree the need for the three UK lockdowns until a vaccine was rolled out (as the genie was out the bottle by that stage) but I don’t agree with the lack of independent thought and debate about the virus once we became aware of it. For example, China locked down the entire Hubei province in January 2020. This actually was the correct approach to the virus (local lockdowns) and in my opinion it was what UK, Europe and US should have been prepared to do when we became impacted but I believe the group think got in the way.
August 28, 2024
The Infection Fatality Ratio of SARS Cov 2 was reliably known within a fortnight of the first GB lockdown being announced. It was at the same level as a bad outbreak of ordinary ‘flu. At that point Johnson should have kept to his statement that he needed two weeks to flatten the curve, and ended the lockdown. Instead he listened to the doom-mongers and locked the country down for months more, including the winter and early spring of 2021, well after the Covid injections were made widely available. I approved of Johnson at first. I’m afraid his legacy after Covid will be to remind us of the importance of always questioning what the government says.
August 28, 2024
Have diagnosed 3cases in the last 10days.
August 27, 2024
The government’s programme of lockdowns and furlough payments achieved its objective: public acquiescence in a huge increase in state power, and a willingness to depend on state financial provision. It also showed that a very large part of the population would accept the government narrative and even defend it vociferously against those who questioned its factual basis. It wasn’t clear up till then how far society as a whole would behave in the way behavioural psychologists had found individuals behaved in extreme settings, such as the Milgram experiments designed to test compliance with authority, or Stockholm syndrome where hostages adopted the viewpoint of their captors. Perhaps most important, it demonstrated that media messaging could be synchronised so as to marginalise or exclude investigative journalists who might ask awkward questions. Not least, it showed that the democratic process could be set aside – parliament closed down, elections cancelled, government by statutory instrument. I would say this was more of a top-down coup d’etat than a social revolution.
August 27, 2024
5, 6, and 7 of course we see very much in relation to the net zero energy policy. āThe Scienceā is invoked, debate is suppressed and dissenters denigrated and cancelled, and power to make rules over our lives is handed to bodies we donāt elect and canāt remove (like the climate change committee).
The most important lesson to come out of the covid / lockdown disaster was the āconsensusā both on āthe scienceā and on policy was wrong. Masks, especially outside were useless. The vaccines, while they did mitigate symptoms, did not prevent the spread of covid, so vaccine mandates were not justified. The costs both economic and societal of lockdown massively outweighed any possible benefits. We see both from countries which didnāt lock down (eg Sweden) versus those that did and US states that didnāt versus those that did that the overall outcome was not discernibly different.
Lockdown was a terrible policy disaster. The U.K. Inquiry seems to have been set up to avoid this conclusion. Dissenting scientists and other experts for example are not invited, or in one case are treated contemptuously.
There are many parallels with the much more long drawn out approach to net zero energy policy.
August 27, 2024
Richard 1
Certainly agree that the Covid Inquiry as presently set up, is a complete and utter waste of time and money.
Why let facts get in the way of a good story, EH. !
August 27, 2024
Millions of people had much more free time to catch up on normally-undone things left for months, tidy up, reassess their lives and plan different better futures. Many used the time to read, research and gain better skills or qualifications. Many were paid 80% of their normal salary, without having to go to work, and without having to pay massive travel costs: avoiding time wasted in long congested journeys. So many saw the futility of going to an office solely to tap on a computer that they could do more efficiently at home, as well as taking their kids to school: so long as they worked and didnāt skive!
This caused a Revolution.
August 27, 2024
Bloke, I know two women who hadn’t realised Univeral credit top-ups were so high; they now do fewer hours, save on the childcare and are no worse off.
August 27, 2024
Lucky beggars! Meanwhile the workers still had to work, no furlough for them.
August 27, 2024
Item 7 re spin and media control is definitely worth detailed investigation. It is not new but seems to have been elevated, at times, to levels predicted by Orwell. The reason is obvious. It is the attempt by the government to control thought and behaviour. The nudge unit, set up by Cameron, and the apparent refusal of the Starmer government to defend free speech in universities are but two examples. Global brain washing that CAGW is responsible for climate change and every adverse weather event is another, accompanied by rejection of the scientific method in favour of propaganda.
August 27, 2024
Unfortunately Lockdown showed us all that big brother type rules, laws, and management by fear and regulation by the State, is a complete policy failure, because it does not take into account Human Nature.
One system solutions often suits nobody, which is why Communism always fails in the end, yet our Politicians seem intent on believing that more Government not less is the solution.
Poor Government department efficiency is the result of too many employees working from home, many commercial companies are also finding this out to their cost, as customer service declines.
August 27, 2024
The police reaction was horrifying to see. Attention diverted from real criminals to intimidating innocent law abiding people. Horrifying.
Absolutely correct in that the media and politicians not only ignored other opinions but demonised those with a different view. The Barrington Declaration got it just about right.
August 27, 2024
I’m told by a retired social worker that the service in Wokingham has many cases of children facing anxiety, mental health and educational issues as a result of the lockdown policy. When the evidence is examined the benefits of a slight slowing of the spread of the virus are overwhelmed by the damage to the lives of the less well off and the closures of small businesses. There were many highly qualified medics and economists who warned about this (“The main effect of lockdown will be to make poor people poorer” WHO Vice-President) but we were urged to go into panic mode.
August 27, 2024
I much look forward to reading your blogs on this topic.
A number of the trends had been in play for many years, the work-life balance being an example of such.
The presumption by the government of its right to wield powers so extensively was an unwelcome surprise, particularly as it faced little proper scrutiny in Parliament, as was its ability to enjoy the uncritical collaboration of the mainstream media. I watched early press conferences appalled by the timid questioning of Ministers and scientists. I did not watch the later ones.
August 27, 2024
Indeed and a huge divided between jobs that can be done from home and jobs that cannot like building, electricians, roofers, drain men, delivering, shop workers, warehouse workers, surgeons, vets, farmers, repairmen, gardeningā¦
The Covid locksdowns did far more harm than good as was entirely predictable even at the time. All they could really do was very slightly delay a few deaths of fairly elderly infirm people by a few months. The negatives are that for every one you did this for then perhaps 1000 of so fit young people had natural vaccinations from Covid infections delayed – plus it cost billions, destroyed the economy and many died due to delays in healthcare and diagnosis. Then they went on to push dangerous ineffective new tech. vaccines into people with zero need of them killing and injuring tens of thousands more.
How are the criminal corporate manslaughter investigation coming on around the world and in the UK. Is the MHRA vaccines regulator still funded mainly by big Pharma – no conflict of interest there then!
Why did the government use such poor or compromised experts. Rather than honest and sensible ones.
August 27, 2024
Even people like Neil OāBrian (PPE again) employed to trash the reputations of the more sensible experts and journalists like the Barrington Declaration following and anti-lockdown, anti āvaccineā types!
August 27, 2024
More propaganda from the UN see below. If anyone one thinks the best ways to save Pacific Island from sea ingress is to build more wind farms in the UK to save a tiny bit of CO2 they are clearly bonkers. Sea levels have gone up and down of millions of years we are currently in a relative dearth of CO2 in historical terms. Sea ingress on Pacific Islands has also happened for millions of years. The world has never been static the UK detached from Europe around 450,000 years ago. CO2 level then about 3500 PPM currently just circa 420 PPM.
We adapted that is the only sensible way to do we are still adapting.
United Nations:-
A āworldwide catastropheā is imperiling Pacific Islands and the world must respond to the unprecedented and devastating impacts of rising seas ābefore it is too late,ā the United Nations chief has warned.
āThe ocean is overflowing,ā Guterres said. āThis is a crazy situation: Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanityās making. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety.ā Guterresā dire warning was made at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in the Tongan capital NukuŹ»alofa, and coincided with the release of two UN reports detailing how the climate crisis is accelerating disastrous changes to the ocean.
August 27, 2024
It also had devastating social consequences particularly for the young. The damage to the mental health of millions is incalculable.
I had a particular loathing for the mandatory mask mandate and believe it involved disturbing manipulation by Government. It was like living in a dystopia and worse than anything Orwell conceived.
August 28, 2024
The mask mandate was absurd, being announced in July at the height of summer when the risk of transmitting infection is at its lowest. I believe it was brought in at the behest of the shop workers’ union. Or perhaps you’re right, Richard, and the government used the union’s demand as cover for what it wanted to do anyway, enforce a badge of compliance. Anyone wearing a mask in public seemed to be advertising their belief in the government’s claim that there was a killer virus around that posed a threat to everybody.
The other point of enforced mask-wearing was to see if people would forget they’d been told a few months earlier that masks were ineffective against a virus. Would the public accept without demur the contradictory messaging from the ‘experts’? Answer: yes. Now the government could pretty much say and do what it liked, claiming it was following ‘the science’.
August 27, 2024
“Your thoughts and interests in this could be useful.”
I’ll put together my thoughts on the subjects for you.
August 27, 2024
ā5. The role of scientists and experts in policy formation and government presentationā
Indeed we need a red team of sensible scientists to oppose the group thinks lunacy we get from government. Especially on the evil Net Zero lunacy. Their group think is nearly always totally wrong government choose the experts who support their duff agendas – on for example:-
Transport, the war on cars & VANS, on net zero, on energy, on renewable subsidies, on the NHS structures, on ever bigger government, on high taxes, on every more employment laws and other red tape, on net harm Covid Vaccines, on the lack of any criminal deterrents, on rigged housing markets, on open door low skilled immigrationā¦
August 27, 2024
Mark Zuckerberg says White House pressured Meta over Covid-19 content
Chief of Facebook parent says Biden administration was āwrongā and is ready to āpush backā in future. Hancock and OāBrian doing virtually the same in the UK. It seems Nick Clegg was pushed on this too.
Also the insanity of the you will wear ineffective āCovidā masks agenda. At least they did not insist on number tattoos though they did coerce for many to take very dangerous & ineffective vaccines.
August 27, 2024
Then why have they arrested Durov? Telegram publishes all sorts of thing the west does not want you to know. Thatās why.
August 28, 2024
+1
August 27, 2024
1. Attitudes to working from home versus going to an office or other premise to work
Pros:
Workers save time commuting. It also relieves traffic congestion.
Businesses save on accommodation costs. Where I live four huge office sites previously employing 4,000 staff have been demolished, replaced with housing.
Savings on buying lunch although this is a con for businesses who rely on office workers for their custom.
Workers can balance their home and work life better. They can now break from work to take their kids to school and pick them up later. They donāt need to take time off work when workmen need to do jobs in their house.
Savings on buying work clothes.
Cons:
An overall reduction in productivity. I know many people who now work from home. They all talk about being able to do their housework, take relatives to appointments, walk the dog, sunbathe, entertain visitors, and watch TV.
A reduction in social interaction. This is a major issue, especially for young people. Many of us have met our spouses and lifelong friends through work. Young people need experienced colleagues to mentor them and learn from. I expect a gradual decline in knowledge and ability over the coming years.
An increase in mental health problems. Humans are social, herd animals. We need social interaction to function properly.
An increase in home running costs e.g. gas and electric. Iām not sure if this can be claimed against tax.
My Conclusion:
It can be good but only for a couple of days per week.
Certainly, in my area, it cannot be reversed as most offices have now been demolished.
August 27, 2024
Christine,
Much of what you say could well be true, however it is all down to the character of those working from home. For around 10 years I worked for two separate companies in sales and marketing but found nothing positive about office politics or what I saw as nepotism and a lack of vision or ambition.
I left, starting my own business working from home with a time zone that stretched from the Far East to central USA. It didn’t leave much time to indulge in domestjc activities. However over a period of some thirty years my secretary fellow director and I built a business with a Ā£20,000,000 pa sales turnover. We both benefitted at a level far higher than was possible at our previous conventional employment. Having increased sales at my second company, it was sold on to have all its assets sold to India. It is now no more than a flat concrete patch on the ground. Working from home can transform life.
August 28, 2024
You’ve done good but I expect you are a rarity. I’ve managed hundreds of staff and I generally found 80% of the work was done by 20% of the staff. Being self-employed can bring great rewards but at a risk.
August 27, 2024
It’s interesting that just before lockdown companies were starting to reel in the option of working from home. Big companies like IBM set up offices with no fixed allocation – hot desks in other words. Companies made it more difficult to work from home with certain rules being applied.
WFH is a viable option for companies who can trust their employees. You’d expect companies to encourage this as long as they can make sure the lazy people actually do their work because it would mean less money tied up in infrastructure.
These people gave science a bad name. Along with HMG misinformation and activities by psyops the whole affair showed just how much we could trust government, which was; Not as far as we could throw them!
August 27, 2024
2. Attitudes to the working week, work/ life balance , and productivity:
I think the Covid years have changed many people’s attitude to their work/life balance. It gave them a taste of more leisure and family time. I also think the constant rubbishing of our history and culture has broken us as a cohesive people who work towards the collective good.
You have to ask, what is the point of working hard if you are taxed to death and you canāt even pass on your wealth to your family? This Labour government is like a dictatorship from a communist state and is working its way through the Marxist playbook. Then again the Conservatives weren’t much better.
August 27, 2024
I think it was intentional by govt and establishment to not stigmatise welfare claimants and to help shape their crazy net stupid landscape for the future ie15 minute cities no to curb travelling. Mass immigration okay though!
Govt gives ofcom powers for misinformation! Here goes free speech. Ministry of Truth 1984 here we come.
August 27, 2024
Christine
“You have to ask……”
Agreed, but then the Government want the economy to grow, and people to be more efficient at work, when they are actually rewarding exactly the opposite type of behaviour.
Those who are working are slowly being bled dry, so why bother.
August 27, 2024
3. The approach to deficit financing and monetary management
You should have been appointed as Chancellor – a travesty.
Ask where all the money has gone and how these previous Prime Misters (Blair, Sunak) and Presidents (Clinton, Obama, Biden) have accumulated so much wealth. Look at these so-called charitable foundations.
August 27, 2024
If Two Teir Keir can have specific legislation for his pension why not specific legislation to prosecute Blaire, seize his assets and give to his victims? Also to offset mass immigration and destitution he caused? This seems more important than the wrongs Stasi points out today in his pre tax warning budget.
August 27, 2024
The decision to lock down was wrong; we are reaping the results now. We are becoming a two-tier nation, those who are lazy and will do as little as possible, mainly in the public sector, and those who still work hard as a natural part of their character. I accept that some people can work from home and still do 100%, but most won’t.
Do China, India, and Russia all encourage working from Home? It is a harsh, tough, competitive world out there, and the UK will slide into poverty and decline until we have a government prepared to make tough, difficult, unpopular decisions. If you don’t take action while you have choices, you will find that actions you don’t want to take are forced on you!
August 27, 2024
Iād suggest that we currently have a two-tier nation ā¦but along various lines
Indigenous vs Immigrant
Pubic Sector vs Private Sector
Muslim vs Christian
Leave vs Remain
Woke vs Non-Woke
Net-Zero vs Non-Net-Zero
Command Govt vs Freedom Govt
Police for the many vs Police for the few
Pro UN/EU vs Con UN/EU
August 27, 2024
Keith,
Some people can be measured in their tasks working from home and compared to their work rate at the office. The last government could have easily checked the targets for processing things like probate (all charged), passports (charged), and immigration status. On that last one, Patel removed the targets! Why?
One small probate claim took 18 months for a total estate worth less than Ā£120k; the flat sale fell through, and the charge on that flat in maintenance lost the estate Ā£4,000; I believe they also paid council tax, and the solicitors fee rose as they chased the probate office. It’s pathetic, there should be deadlines for processing estates of each size but those with no tax due seem to have no priority when they could be cleared the easiest especially when a solicitor fills in all the details.
A passport delay cost a family member an import contract that has never come back to take. At least with a train delay, the train company has to pay back your fare nothing if the government department takes too long. Instead, they like it because they get higher rewards by forcing their customers to pay extra to fast-track.
August 27, 2024
Number 7 is the subject which has significant dangers to ordinary people on speech and action which must be resisted. The state has passed laws and its new leaders are now able and willing to politicise. Keir Stalin must be feared.
August 27, 2024
4. The mismanagement of the NHS and the wider public sector
The mismanagement of the NHS has had a devastating effect on my family. My granddaughter died because an NHS committee refused to fund a simple test that cost 58p and is available in almost all Western countries. Yet they can afford to bring people for treatment from Gazza. They also forced my daughter on the threat of losing her job, who works for the NHS, to take an untested vaccine which has caused her life-changing damage. Envy of the world? I donāt think so. I will never forgive them.
August 27, 2024
5. The role of scientists and experts in policy formation and government presentation
You just need to watch Climate The Movie for the answer to this one.
Also, follow the money. I won’t name names as you won’t publish my comment.
August 27, 2024
I certainly would be interested in your views Sir John on the role of Computer Models in essentially de-facto driving Policy decisions. You mention the overreliance on Scientists during Covid; but the real elephant in the room is Climate Modelling. This is driving many moves by politicians to rip-up the way we live and have developed over the centuries in order to return to a primitive style that beloved by extreme ecologists. This is a far bigger issue even than Covid, as the solutions being proposed are simply not viable for the Global population we now have – compared to the Stone Age or even Mediaeval times.
August 27, 2024
6.The role of international bodies and Treaties in the response to the pandemic.
Their role was to protect their masters. We all now know COVID came from Gain of Function experimentation. They are now emboldened and plan to repeat their success with Mpox.
The joining of any International body or the signing of any treaty should only ever happen following a referendum of the people and there should be a further vote every ten years to ask if we want to remain.
August 27, 2024
7. The spin and media control stifling different views or approaches, reinforced by most political parties taking the official line.
We have lost our freedom of speech in this country. Most media is under the control of the Globalists.
I only listen to GBNews and TALK radio now and get most of my information from YouTube, X and sites like this.
The Nudge Units and Government propaganda took over the BBC years ago.
We need to get back to good family values rather than the debauchery we are forced to experience with all these woke and pride events, not to mention the Olympic opening ceremony. Young children should not be exposed to these sights.
August 27, 2024
C,
Spot on. Same with all your above blogs.
August 27, 2024
I believe it has led to, a) a lack of motivation amongst the younger generation and b) a sense of entitlement where the common held belief is that the government should do everything possible to ensure minimum effort is required from populace. Furlough was a grave mistake.
August 27, 2024
+1
August 27, 2024
Among many things that I could mention –
At the time, I wondered why on earth RS set the level of furlough at 80% of salary. During this time, people’s expenditure was drastically reduced. RS could easily have got away with 70%, or even 60%, which was the limit in many similar Western countries. If you do not work, you cannot expect any more than subsistence. A few months ago I asked Brendan Lewis at a conference about this. He said RS set it as 80% because ‘he wanted to be popular’. Really? I would be interested to know what you think about this, Sir John.
One appalling result of the lockdowns was the way in which, with few if any people on the pavements, cyclists took to the pavements as if they had every right to do so. Whereas I might see a cyclist on a pavement once every 2 weeks or so, now I see it several times every DAY. Many of these people are elderly, so they should know better. I understood that cycling on pavements was a criminal offence – it certainly should be, given how dangerous it is – yet the police do NOTHING about it. In some towns, councils have hit back, but there needs to be a national awareness campaign directed at cyclists.
August 27, 2024
I also thought it was high, those people who worked throughout for just 20% more pay felt very used and got no concessions on tax or anything for their more risky experience of covid19.
August 27, 2024
To take your first two points,
1. Working from home is a good idea for many office-based tasks but a bad idea where a physical presence is required. When lockdown came along, many companies accelerated their plans to have more home working (many had been doing this for a long time anyway). A move towards working from home was always inevitable but lockdown made it happen more quickly.
The main problems were where a physical presence was required. We had people trying to demonstrate their symptoms to a medic over a video. We had social services asking people to send pictures of their living conditions. Many elderly people struggled with the technology.
This was indeed a change of attitude where many public sector people thought they could get away with providing an inferior service while sitting at home. Unfortunately many of them are still trying this on. They need to be told to do their jobs or face dismissal.
2. Productivity in the public sector worsened as people were paid to do nothing or very little while they sat at home. Unfortunately, this malaise affected the private sector too as the government insisted on paying them to do nothing also.
However, it should not be forgotten that the private sector used new technology to become more efficient. For example, an engineer who previously had to spend hours travelling from one machine fault to another, could plug directly into the factoryās systems ā and even video cameras – in order to diagnose a fault and could often solve a machine issue remotely, considerably reducing downtime, saving a lot of money and making good quality engineering available to many companies that previously could not afford it.
The public sector may have also achieved some of these improvement but they have not been translated into productivity gains since they now employ even more staff than they did before. What are they all doing!?
On the other points you raised, these are symptomatic of a trend that was already underway where the radicalised Marxists/neo liberals etc had gained control of much of the civil service, educational sector, legal sector, media, charity sector and even much of the emergency services (and made inroads into the military) etc i.e. the non-elected sector.
They had made sure that, regardless of who was voted in, they would run the country in the way they wanted. I am not suggesting some secret conspiracy (though there were no doubt plenty of discreet conspiratorial circles at work) but I am suggesting a movement, fed by years of propaganda from the educational sector and the BBC (and latterly other media). Lockdown merely accelerated this trend as it allowed these radicals to seize more control in the midst of the panic they were fuelling.
An example is the BBC which was putting out very alarming propaganda about covid which was scaring people. Yet, in the early stages, the BBC were keen to tell us that its spread from other countries to Britain was inevitable. It treated the border as if it wasnāt there when the obvious thing to do was to put controls at the border and close it if necessary. The BBC are now pushing the same propaganda with regards to mpox.
August 27, 2024
‘Working from home’ has become ‘social and economic long Covid’. It has through lack of supervision and home distractions massively reduced efficiency, especially in the public sector. I suspect it has caused people to avoid applying or training for other jobs when they might get a cushy ‘working from home’ job, creating or exacerbating job shortages in the more arduous jobs. Furthermore as one can work from home from anywhere in the world, it will cause many British jobs to be lost to people abroad who might work for 10% or 15% of British wages.
For example in a relatively upmarket coffee house in Sri Lanka I chatted to an American who was getting Western pay while living in Sri Lanka with Sri Lankan living costs doing contract work. For instance she was writing ‘expert’ psychological risk assessing safeguarding reports (without meeting the mothers or children she was reporting on face to face) for British local authorities. Clever her, but eventually her job will be lost to locals charging local wage rates, as will many jobs of those still working in Britain. Working from home will favour poorer countries and contribute much to the economic decline of Western countries.
August 27, 2024
Feel better , look at brownstone.org
BROWNSTONE institute .
” Brownstone Institute looks to influence a post-lockdown world by generating new ideas in public health ,
philosophy , scientific discourse , economics , and social theory ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,”
“An initiative of University of Leeds called REPPARE ,supported by Brownstone Institute , to clarify the evidence base on which history`s largest public health program is being built. ” for example and one of a number of
interesting books is – THE TREASON OF THE EXPERTS .
August 27, 2024
Working from home.
The most significant benefit to this type of work is childcare; if your children are a little older, you can work at home and not need to pay extra for childcare, you can drop your own children off at school, get back to start work, take a late lunch and go and pick them up, then finish work whilst they do their homework, read or watch tv. The cost of childcare is around Ā£70 to Ā£150 per day.
Another benefit is to pet owners, they can walk and feed their pet before work, play at lunch with them and they’re not left alone all day at home whilst you are in the office.
The benefits to the employee are much higher than those to the employer, other than having happier staff who don’t need as much time off absent or on sick leave.
The downside to the Employer is often lower productivity because of the popping off work to see to the aforementioned, no or reduced internal training (sitting with nelly), overlooked staff who get disgruntled if not promoted, staff asking for help with their bills, healthy and safety check costs, and isolation.
August 27, 2024
It’s encouraging that Mark Zuckerberg has admitted today: āIn 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content.” Now let’s hear from the senior figures of the Johnson administration, to see if they will admit as much for this country.
Of course the system is different here as the top civil servants remain the same in Britain regardless of government changes, whereas in America the top officials change with the administration. And our civil servants never admit to any wrongdoing or making mistakes.
It would be good to hear from Johnson’s ex-ministers that they also made mistakes in getting social media to censor public opinion. I’m not holding my breath, though.
August 27, 2024
Join Telegram. Free speech.
August 27, 2024
The most extraordinary thing about Lockdown was that it was known the vast majority of the working population were not a risk from what was a nasty dose of a flu-like disease, yet the entire population was locked down in stead of the vulnerable. Looking back, it staggers me how ministers could have been so imbecilic and introduced such crazy and meaningless restrictions.
I never wore a mask, but protected myself from the disease with an exemption lanyard. I actually spent one Saturday morning in our local high street handing out anti-mask leaflets, the only time in my 75 years I had ever been on a protest.
August 30, 2024
Looking back I think the fear that politicians put out was disgraceful. They took advice from the scientific block without much research and now that we have seen the views of what actually happened, it shows how little these people did research into the views they were given. There seems to have been no deep discussion about whether all this stuff coming out was genuine or not.
Working from home is a disaster as it has made people think that there personal life is more important than the employer. This works where it is a state operated employment because they seem to do what they like but a private firm cannot function and make money with people who put themselves first. You work for an employer first and your personal life comes after that. Whoever pays the bills rules, or should do.
I think the two for one meal was a mistake and said so at the time. It encouraged the spreading of the disease and was a total waste of money. Sunak handled the crisis badly by being out of his depth. I also think giving people 80% of their salaries to stay at home (not all got it which was unfair for those who had to work) a total disaster as they just banked the money which was far too much (50% would have been generous enough) and went on holidays when restrictions were lifted. This also helped cause the monetary problem we have not. Sunak ran scared if you ask me. I think older, more experienced politicians, like yourself would have been better to deal with the emergency. The WHO is too powerful and should not be followed without a full debate as they are unelected people. No one who is not elected by the people should have any say over what happens. These quangos need to go (Cameron promised he would do something if I remember but they were all false promises, as usual) and MPs who we elect should make the decisions on their own backs. This current lot seem to be employing others to do the thinking for them which is totally wrong. Get reports, yes, but make your own judgments on them with knowledge of your own. The problem is the age of these people. Most of them have not had real life experience and jobs in the private sectors to teach them how the ordinary person lives and works. Ten years in private work before being considered for MP would be a good start.